Lochailort to Montrose
Introduction
This is the Journal of a 1987 Challenge to cover the 8 (at that time) 4000 Ft Mountains.
Team Iain Matheson aged 74 and me (Mick Daniels) aged 53.
The route, like all good routes, was conceived in a pub in Kennington one evening after a 10 mile walk in September 1986, like this:
Iain: “Challenge next year – what do you fancy? I fancy the 4000ft Mountain Route. I have tried it three times, but was forced off each time by the weather.”
Me (full of whisky): “OK, why not?”
Iain: “OK, I will do the route.”
Me: “Good”
Then I promptly forgot about it.
Later Iain said, I have submitted the route, and it has been approved, with the comment: “This has been tried and no-one has succeeded, so best of luck to you not-so-young men”
The intended route – 4000′ hills in italics
I suddenly realised what I had let myself in for, as this was only my third Challenge. Iain said, “There are some very long hard days, which means early starts at 5 to 6am – never later than 6.am.”
My Equipment:
(remember there was not the lightweight equipment available today).
- The tent was a Korean copy of a Blacks Backpacker 2 – cost £35 Weight 4.5 pounds ( this tent did 11 Challenges, visits to the Alps & the Andes and is now in Malawi being used by the Rangers).
- Rucksack was an Alpinist 5 climbing sack, with added side pockets – total capacity 75 Litres. With a waist belt, not a padded hip belt, weight 5 Ibs.
- Sleeping Bag, a 4 seasons hollow fibre filled (very bulky), weight 3 Ibs
- Foam roll up mat.
- Trangia Meths stove with a bottle of Meths and a spoon for eating.
- Cotton tee shirt
- Cotton lumberjack shirt
- Wool outer socks and cotton squash socks as inner socks.
- A Sprayway breathable Cagoule (which I still use)
- Heavy over trousers
- Yeti gaiters which fixed on to …
- Scarpa boots.
- Spare clothing was also carried.
- lce axe, crampons and a 9mm rescue rope.
40 to 44 lbs (18kg – 20kg). I only weighed 10 stone 10 lbs (68kg).
Food.
- Dry porridge to make up.
- Crackers with a tube of cheese.
- Dried milk.
- Sugar, coffee and cup-a-soup.
- Evening meal was Pasta or Noodles.
Total weight carried:
There was no GPS, Mobile Phone or Spot!
The actual route, and what happened Pt1
Ben Nevis & Carn Mor Dearg
I arrived at Lochailort at 11.30am on Saturday 16th as planned. Then things changed. I met the Cider Crunchers and Quincy – so of course we decided to have a drink before setting off.
At 2pm we thought it was time to make a move – they towards Charlie’s Cave, me to Cona Glen. On reaching Cona Glen I decided to carry onto Fort William, hoping to find somewhere to camp beside the road. But the road was fenced off all the way along, so I eventually got to Camaghael where there was a camp site behind the school, arriving at 9.00pm after a distance of 24 miles. A short first day.
Sunday 17th
I walked through to Fort William and on to the Glen Nevis camp site to wait for Iain, who had started from a different start point.
Monday 18th
Up at 5am to be away by 6am. A bright, clear but cold morning. The day started well. The walk up to the zig zags was good and we were making good time, but then the weather started to close in and it started to snow. The route to the top became difficult with deep fresh snow, so we didn’t make the top until after 12 noon.
Going past the abseil posts to the arête was quite terrifying, even with crampons on, as the fresh snow was over ice. The slope was steep, with a drop over the North Face. The wind was strong now, and we had the snow covered arete to traverse.
The arête is a 1km long narrow path with frightening drops on both sides. I was using the ice axe, and still wearing crampons. The going was slow but steady, when suddenly a very large rock loomed up, blocking the path
Iain, being over 6ft managed to reach round to pull himself round. I being only 5ft 4ins could not reach. I looked down on both sides but saw nothing but the drop. A moment of panic set in. “what do I do? Try to go back?”. Then Iain said, “Give me the end of your axe, and I’ll pull you round”.
As he pulled me round with my feet dangling in mid air I thought ‘please don’t let go’, but he got me past and we continued to the top of Carn Mor Dearg.
We then continued down the nose of Carn Mor Dearg towards Aonach Beag, but as we went the snow got deeper until it was impossible to go any further. We then decided that we would have to scramble and slide down the south side to reach the bealach between the mountains. This took 2½ hours of exhilaration and fear. When we got down we realised that it was too late to proceed, so decided to camp at 2,500ft.
The actual route, and what happened Pt 2
Aonach Mor, Aonach Beag to Tom an Eite
Tuesday 19th
After a miserable, cold night we were up at five am to continue. The tents were frozen solid. so after taking out the poles and pegs we lay on them and then walked on them until we could pack them.
We then set off up the side of the frozen burn with crampons and ice axe. We reached the top to be greeted by snow and a virtual white-out. We turned north to take in Aonach Mor, and after finding the top we turned back south to take in Aonach Beag.
On the way we found some footsteps to follow. After a while we realised that they were ours, and we had been walking in a circle, so out came the compasses, which were a bit flighty, as the needle kept going off in strange directions. We managed to head south towards Aonach Beag. It was now snowing harder and visibility was about twenty yards. As I was wearing snow glasses I led the way, prodding the snow with my ice axe to look for hidden holes or burns. Iain was shouting behind me, “Don’t go too far left – that is the edge”.
Suddenly out of the snow loomed a pile of rocks looking just like a castle from Grimm’s Fairy Tales. “The top!”, shouts Iain, “Now to find the place where we get down to the Grey Corries”.
But when we found it, it was impossible, even with the rope, because of overhanging cornices. Feeling slightly dispirited we carried on south to get off the mountain. It was nice to leave the snow behind and we got down to Steall ruins for lunch in Glen Nevis – about 4 miles from where we had started on Monday (two days ago).
We carried on down Glen Nevis, very tired, to Tom an Eite where we camped.
The actual route, and what happened Pt 3
Heading for the Cairngorms
Wednesday 20th
Up at six, realising that we had lost a lot of time, but even worse was the food situation as we were down to 4 Ryvitas, 4 cup-a-soups and a few digestive biscuits. Breakfast was 2 Ryvitas, a cup of coffee, then a long hard slog to Nancy Smith’s.
We followed the path marked on the map, but not so easy on the ground, to Lairig Leacach bothy for lunch (not much) then very rough going via Coire na Cabaig, Coire Laire, over the dam and dismantled railway to Fersit. Nancy was out, but there were two honesty tins, one for the accommodation charge of £2.50 and one for the food in the cupboard. Each tin and packet was individually priced.
Heaven – we could eat!
We filled a saucepan with all sorts to make a stew (after adding up all the prices and putting the money in the tin). We ate the lot, straight from the pan with spoons. Then Nancy came home and gave us our parcel containing, among the necessities, a half bottle of malt (we had drunk all I carried). This was quickly consumed as we could buy more at Kingussie. Suddenly everything seemed rosy. We left our crampons, rope and used maps to be collected later.
It was good to get rid of some weight.
Thursday 21st
Feeling good we set off for another day through the forest and then all the way along Loch Laggan, past Ardverikie (of Monarch of the Glen fame) to Kinlochlaggan and on to the Monadhliath Hotel to camp. By this time I had lost over a stone. Iain had also lost a lot of weight; also he was very tired and his knee was giving him a lot of pain, but he was determined to carry on.
Friday 22nd
A short day to Kingussie, as we had a parcel to collect from the Post Office, then find a bed & breakfast to clean up and put on clean clothes from our parcel. Just up the road from the Post Office was a B&B, so we knocked on the door. Then the embarrassment commenced.
A well spoken lady opened the door and we looked in to see a thick, very expensive light grey carpet. She said, “Hello”. We muttered something about looking for accommodation; we then held up our parcels like like naughty schoolboys.
“We’ve clean clothes”, we said.
“Good”, she replied, sniffing (I guess we were a little bit on the high side having been in the hills for a week) “Leave your outer clothes here and I will see to them. The bedroom is on the right, the shower is on the left at the top of the stairs. When you come down, bring your dirty clothes and I will wash them. Tea and cakes will be waiting for you in the lounge”.
Feeling human, and no longer smelling, we walked into the lounge, which was beautiful. Thick carpets, walls decorated with valuable objects from Africa and India. The tea was served in china cups and the knife and fork were silver.
The lady told us that she was a retired headmistress and her husband was a retired surgeon, both from Edinburgh, but they had worked in Africa and India. After hearing what we were attempting he was quite concerned about Iain as he looked so thin, but they wished us the best of luck and asked us to let them know how we got on, which we did on reaching Montrose. We also left them a parcel which they posted home for us.
Saturday 23rd
After an early breakfast (6am) in the kitchen with these two lovely people we said thank you, then set off , clean and refreshed, to Feshie Bridge and into Feshie Forest to find a little wooden bothy at NH885057 (Map 36). This was very small with someone living in it on what looked like a permanent basis, so we camped outside and watched our equipment very carefully.
Sunday 24th
After a restless night we set off up the Allt Coire Follais to Creag Dhubh, passing the Argyll Stone to Glen Einich, where we camped by the river.
The actual route, and what happened Pt 4
The Cairngorms, and the last of the 4000 footers
Monday 25th
We crossed the river and continued south on the track to Beanaidh Bheag, then by Coire Ruadh to scramble onto Braeriach.
This made it all worthwhile, a wonderful clear day, blue sky and the coldest, clearest fresh tasting water shooting up out of the snow (the start of the Dee). Then on to Einich Cairn, the Angel’s Peak, Cairn Toul and the Devil’s Point. Then a scramble down the snow filled Coire Odhar to Corrour bothy. This was a cold, airless place, and occupied, so we again camped outside.
Tuesday 26th
Up at 5am to be away by 6 for another long, hard day. We crossed the Dee and headed north up the Lairig Ghru. The Allt Clach nan Taillear was snow filled, so we followed the burn on the left of it, and using our ice axes and prayers we scrambled to the top of Ben Macdui – Exhilarating!
Then around the plateau, avoiding the snow filled lochans by Coire an Sneachda (where we saw children jumping on the overhanging snow). We warned their parents, but were told to buzz off (not pleasantly). We then reached the top of Cairngorm.
I turned to Iain and said, “We’ve done it – all we have to do now is reach Montrose”.
We both felt a bit sad that the big adventure seemed over. Then a woman in mules walked up to Iain and said, “Have you just come up the chair lift – I have”.
I have never seen Iain so angry. After muttering something about ‘the bloody chair lift’ I thought he was going to hit her. I calmed him down by saying I thought we ought to be moving on…
We scrambled and slid down Cairngorm (the snow was still lying on this slope) to Loch Avon, intending to cross the Fords of Avon and on to Derry Lodge, but the Avon was in spate, and deep. We realised that we were in trouble again, with a big detour down to Ballater. We carried on along the Avon to the bothy near there, where we crossed the Avon, then south-east to pick up the track by Lochbuilg Lodge, then on to Ballater campsite, just in time for a pub meal.
A horrendous, long day, but we desperately wanted to finish on Thursday.
The actual route, and what happened Pt 5
Ballater to Montrose
Wednesday 27th
Ballater to Mount Keen. I was in front as we approached the shoulder of Mount Keen. As we were pretty shattered by now I shouted back to lain “Shall we go round?”. I received no reply and thought he wanted to go up, so I staggered up to the top. When he joined me he said, “Why the Hell have you brought me up here? We should have gone round”. I thought, “Damn me”, produced my whisky flask and he drank the lot. He obviously hadn’t heard me.
On the way down at the Queens Well there was Mary (the wife of Lord Farndale) with her car. As we approached she exclaimed, “Look at the state of you two, there’s nothing of you”. We were both pretty exhausted and lain was in quite a bad way, but Mary fed us with cakes, tea and a liberal dose of whisky. We then staggered slowly on to Tarfside where Gladys and family made a big fuss of us. She said “You can sleep in the lounge tonight as there is no one else here”. After cleaning up and dinner lain got straight into his sleeping bag and I followed soon after.
Thursday 28th
At breakfast lain said “We will not finish until Friday. I think we should make for Edzell”. I agreed, thinking ‘I hope we can make it there’. We set off for Edzell, but down the road just before the bridge, where you cross to the river bank, Hamish Brown was collecting leaf mould for his garden. “Hi you two” he said “you had better get a move on as you are expected in Montrose for the dinner tonight”.
“No way” we replied. “We cannot make it to Montrose today”.
“I will monitor your progress.”
“0K, we will give it a try”
We set off and eventually reached the Park Hotel about 6pm, signed in and made our way to the Bar, where the owner had promised us a bottle of Macallan if we succeeded. This was produced and sampled, when Barbara came down and said, “Hurry up you two and get showered and changed – we are waiting to go in to dinner”.
In conclusion, we saw no other Challengers, only Hamish & Mary. When we got back to London we both found we had colossal weight loss. lain was told by his Doctor to do nothing until he had gained at least 2 stone, I went for a run but only managed about 200 yards before giving up exhausted.
It took several months to recover completely, and all this for a little metal badge (worn very proudly) and a certificate. Would I have tried it again? Probably, if it had been suggested, but there were so many other hills and routes.
I must say what a privilege it was to share this adventure with such a wonderful and knowledgeable man of the Scottish Hills as lain Matheson. I hope you have enjoyed this journal.
Mike Daniels
Editor’s note: Iain Matheson died in March 2006, aged 93. Mike died in June 2016, aged 80.